Cook Islands Parliament Speaker Niki Rattle is in Fiji, observing the Fijian Parliment sitting in an effort to review and improve national Parliamentary Standing Orders, among other things.

Her week-long trip is part of a “South-South” exchange supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

In an interview with the Fiji Parliament media team, Rattle said she had learned many new things from the live sessions.

“We are currently reviewing our Standing Orders and as such, it is important that I come to Fiji, because its parliament is practising what we see in most Standing Orders in other Pacific parliaments,” Rattle said.

“This has been a worthwhile visit as I have learnt a lot of new things from the live sessions.

“I am pleased at how things are handled here in the Fijian parliament and I am certain that we will be able to benchmark our way forward and implement similar strategies for our own benefit back home.”

Rattle said the Cook Islands parliament was slowly progressing, adding it was aiming to improve on planning and to form a business committee.

She said they hope to pre-plan the Parliament businesses and include it in the Standing Orders to avoid unexpected disruptions and other problems.

“We only have 24 Members of Parliament with about 13 staff but we continue to work towards achieving our goals for the purpose of improving the lives of the citizens and being here, is one way of learning and further improving our move towards progress.”

Deputy Clerk of Parliament Helen Maunga said Rattle was to have spent two weeks observing parliamentary proceedings in Fiji, but due to New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s visit to the Cook Islands last week, she had delayed the trip to this week.

Earlier this week, Rattle also met with her Fijian counterpart Dr Jiko Luveni and Fijian women MPs where they talked about women-related issues, among other matters.